Boston bombing suspects: what we know, and what we don’t

With the manhunt for the alleged perpetrators of the Boston bombings – Tamerlan and Dzhokar Tsarnaev – now over, a complex and confusing picture is emerging of the two men involved. Here’s what we know so far.

1. The older brother, Tamerlan, expressed concerns about the American lifestyle. Featured in a photojournalism essay about his love of boxing, Tamerlan told the reporter he was very religious and disliked taking off his shirt at the gym in case women got the wrong idea. He also said he given up drinking because ‘God said no to alcohol’. Tamerlan also expressed concern at American values, arguing ‘there are no values anymore…[people] can’t control themselves.’ This led to his isolation from wider society, with him confirming ‘I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them.’.

2. Tamerlan’s Youtube account reveals he had watched jihadist videos. These videos were not overtly linked to al-Qaeda (they were not, for example, speeches by Osama bin Laden) but nonetheless came from the jihadist milieu. In many cases they echoed the millenarian narrative of jihadist propaganda, accompanied by the motifs, logos, and iconography that is associated with it. Yet, Tamerlan’s online viewing habits are not as obviously jihadist as might be expected. Contrasting him with the failed ‘underpants bomber’ Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Tamerlan’s online persona is much more benign. Abdulmutallab left behind a clear trail of messages revealing a highly disturbed and radicalised personality. By contrast, Tamerlan was watching a lot of Russian pop songs – despite Salafi-jihadists declaring all forms of music forbidden. His brother, Dzhokar, reveals a similar history online. Six days before the bombings he posted a video online about the conflict in Syria, but had also posted clips from a Russian sketch show. Indeed, the overall pattern of their viewing habits online does not fit the pattern of a typical jihadist.

3. Neither of the men seemed particularly active in the local Muslim community. So far no details have emerged of any mosque where they are said to have regularly prayed. They also appear to lack connections to any group, nor have any of their friends spoken of them becoming radicalised over time by becoming more religious or by embracing more extreme political opinions. Again, this suggests there could have been a motive other than a jihadist one, but it remains unclear.

4. It is too soon to know if the men were part of a wider network or if they acted alone. What we do know is that at least one of the bombs closely matched a recipe released by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. For the last two years AQAP has tried to equip sympathetic Muslims in the West with all the information they need to build crude homemade explosive devices, which saves them the need to visit training camps abroad. As a result it has published detailed bomb making instructions in the English language, in order to reach beyond its traditionally Arab audience. This would obviously suggest it was a jihadist attack.

5. Much is made of the men’s Chechen background. While they were born abroad, both had spent a decade in the United States, were educated there, and enjoyed the opportunities of a free society. This suggests the authorities will consider the case one of ‘homegrown’ terrorism rather than a foreign plot (as was the case with 9/11). Many Americans had assumed they were immune to this kind of attack, believing America could better integrate its immigrants than European countries. This will have an impact on future immigration debates in the United States.

6. This was probably the most crowd-sourced terrorist attack in history. Long before the FBI released official photographs of the suspects, internet users from online communities like 4Chan and Reddit had poured over open sources pictures to identify potential suspects. It was a clumsy and crude method – plenty of entirely innocent people were framed – but this is likely to be an unstoppable trend following all such attacks in the future. On Twitter, too, residents inside the Watertown cordon in Boston were warned not to tweet the location of tactical response units as they scoured the area looking for Dzhokar.

The Boston bomb plot itself was relatively straightforward and unsophisticated. Far more complex and complicated are the men behind it, their trajectories and motivations. That Dzhokar was taken alive means we can expect to learn a lot more about them in the coming days.

Sharia is a sensible ans reasonable code of laws. Id be happy to see it introduced into the UK. I have been told it means nothing more than ‘law’ so there is no need to treat it as something bad. we all need law and so we might as well adopt the law of islam as the numbers of muslims grow and grow. 20 million by 2070.

http://twitter.com/georgeigler George Igler

SAHIH MUSLIM, BOOK 17, NUMBER 4206
“He (the narrator) said: There came to him (the Holy Prophet) a woman from Ghamid and said: Allah’s Messenger, I have committed adultery, so purify me. He (the Holy Prophet) turned her away.

On the following day she said: Allah’s Messenger, Why do you turn me away? Perhaps, you turn me away as you turned away Ma’iz. By Allah, I have become pregnant. He said: Well, if you insist upon it, then go away until you give birth to (the child).

When she was delivered she came with the child (wrapped) in a rag and said: Here is the child whom I have given birth to. He said: Go away and suckle him until you wean him.

When she had weaned him, she came to him (the Holy Prophet) with the child who was holding a piece of bread in his hand. She said: Allah’s Apostle, here is he as I have weaned him and he eats food.

He (the Holy Prophet) entrusted the child to one of the Muslims and then pronounced punishment. And she was put in a ditch up to her chest and he commanded people and they stoned her. ”

WOMAN FACES DEATH BY STONING ‘AFTER WEANING’
The Guardian, 20th August 2002http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/aug/20/gender.chrismcgreal
“An Islamic court in Nigeria upheld a sentence of death by stoning on a woman convicted of adultery yesterday, going against government opinion that the death penalty for adultery is unconstitutional.

The judgment has therefore paved the way for a clash with the federal courts on the validity of the Islamic law applied in northern states, an issue which has already led to thousands of deaths in communal riots.

The Islamic high court in Funtua, Katsina state, rejected Amina Lawal’s argument that her conviction for adultery was invalid because the child born as a result of the liaison was conceived before sharia law took effect in Katsina.

Her lawyers added that the divorced mother-of-three had not been legally represented at the original trial before a village court in March, and that she did not know she might be condemned to death.

Ms Lawal, who was clutching her eight-month-old daughter, wept at the ruling and dozens of spectators cheered and shouted “God is great”.

The court ruled that she cannot be executed until she has finished breastfeeding her baby daughter, Wasila, which the judge said would not be before January 2004.”

telemachus

there are lots of aspects of culture which seem hard to except. but in the multicultural society we lve in we need to except all the differences to form a new society which contains all the riches of the different cultures that make us up. it would be wrong to privilege british culture and customs especially as we are now a minority in many places like London.

http://twitter.com/georgeigler George Igler

So what aspect of the riches of our culture must those who want to stone people to death accept? Will you help to hold her down as they shovel in the earth, or just turn and look the other way, and change the channel back to X factor?

telemachus

we must allow space here in the uk for islam to develop as it wants. hopefully some aspects will become less common. but it is wrong to jugde other cultures by the British one. there are things thatare not good about our own which need to be replaced by parts of islam culture. this is what multiculturalsim means. replacing british culture with different cultures.

http://twitter.com/georgeigler George Igler

But replacing this culture is not a consequence-free decision. You have to make choices. People will die. People will suffer. You can say how wonderful you think it will all be, and you are entitled to. But simply answer my question: in this wonderful new future of yours, that you advocate we all celebrate and accept as inevitable, will you participate in the evil that is done, or just look the other way — until the door that is knocked upon is your own?

*The object at the end of that last sentence – ? – is called a “Question” “Mark”. It invites the reader to address in their response the query that has been asked of them, as an alternative to coming out with more fatuous half-baked drivel.*

telemachus

it is not right to question other cultures. they are all right in their own way. what you call evil, other people call islam. things that we find difficult will become increasingly ‘right’ simply by the fact that the islamic population in the UK will increase so rapidly over the next decades. what the majproty want is right. and already in London we have to accept that we are not the majority and must submit to what is becoming the majority cultur. in the past christians used to persecute adulterers and make them pay fines. what is done by muslims is not really any different.

http://twitter.com/georgeigler George Igler

I did not question other cultures: I questioned you. And to my question you gave no answer, because you have none. I hope your children will never have to pay the price of your moral cowardice.

telemachus

the law is the law, this is why islam and socialism work together so well. both demand a submission to the state and to the way of peace. but this is for the good of all. Ed Miliband has been saying today that Islam and Labour are closely compatible and I agree completely.

Augustus

Give an authoritarian ideology such as Islam free rein and it will impose on the world the norms of seventh-century culture. There’s nothing progressive in texts that promote jihad and all the other barbarities, such as brutalization of women, the persecution of homosexuals, honour killings, the beheading of apostates, and the stoning of adulterers. Such a sinister force, driven by a religious fanaticism, confident that God is on their side, and those who do not share their faith are infidels worthy of destruction, can only lead to appeasement of the most cowardly and self-destructive kind.

http://twitter.com/georgeigler George Igler

As ideologies which frequently choose to gain supporters by cynically telling people what “victims” they have constantly been made by “the other”; rather than treating human beings as individuals endowed with free will responsible for their own fates, you’ll be delighted to hear how much I wholeheartedly agree with you.

telemachus

unfortunately many migants are treated as ‘others’ and so do become victims, drivem even to a violence that is not their fault. as i understand it, the way of islam, the way of peace, and the way of socialism, bring about social harmony when they are able to dominate society. Perhaps there are a few decades of troubles before islam and socialism together are able to institute the way of peace in the uk.

Simon Scarth

You really do miss the point and cannot see that the fault is with Islam and the idea that it is the fault of everybody else absolves realistic appraisal of the facts.Immigration is a good thing and my friends, family and colleagues have no problem with immigrants and are married with other nationalities but there is the proviso that there must be common belief and ethos underlying life. Islam is not the way of peace, it is a cause of failure and misery and as Hirshi Ali says education and free thought is the enemy of this faith. The enlightenment came to Europe a few hundred years ago, the model is clear to see but it will take time and suffering for the Muslim diaspora to catch up..

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

I don’t mind excepting them….I am all for excepting them….even 100%

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

Women seem to have a weighting problem in Witness testimony. I see that as conflicting with the HRA

Simon Scarth

But that is the very reason for the failure of the
Muslim faith. Muslims are committed to live under Sharia law and I am told that
is because the extreme penalties that keep true believers from
straying from the true way(!). The concept of personal responsibility does not
exist as all actions are governed by divine one. I do not steal because I have
decided that it is wrong and therefore I do not do it, not because I will have
a hand chopped off, my decision alone. A Muslim may not make any undertaking except
by the clear understanding that it subject to divine consent. I
will see you tomorrow, Inshallah
(if God wills it!). In my experience of 18 years living and working in several
Muslim countries he seldom does! Promises to perform, turn upon time,
honour the agreement made, pay as agreed, be honest are manifestation of the
lack of personal responsibility so absent in Islam and so evident in Northern European
Calvinist countries. Running towards guns shouting Allah u Akbar is a
good example of the gross stupidity of this faith, though it has interesting Darwinistic
advantages.

anotherjoeblogs

hand chopping etc ? you want this in the UK ? chop-chop square instead of leicester square ?
i find your support for shariah and your pic ( a flower ) somewhat incongruous

anotherjoeblogs

I have a better suggestion – those who want to live under shariah can go and live in sudan etc.

Augustus

” what we know, and what we don’t”

Yes, but what de we know of the effort underway by Obama’s media allies to make sure that Americans do not
conclude that the killers were lone wolves from a broken family, or failing that, unhappy immigrants? How long before we must all pity the poor souls, since they have had such a hard life? But whatever false narrative does emerge, the Jewish doctors at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston were well prepared, but instead of dealing with dehydration, they had to treat trauma patients. Something they know quite a lot about.

Augustus

This makes no sense. should read: …do not conclude that this was a terrorist attack, but that the killers were lone wolves etc.

Daniel Maris

What we know: They wanted Sharia to rule the world.

What we don’t know: Whether any Spectator contributors want to see Sharia rule the world, but are too clever to mention the fact.

Donafugata

These two emigrated to the US from the hellhole of Chechnya, even the capital, Grozny is the Russian word for terrible.

If this is how the boys behave when they have grown up with all the advantages a great country like America has to offer, one dreads to think how they would be like had they stayed in Chechnya.

Jihad is a very flexible notion. It can be practised as a group or as an individual activity, rather in the way prayer is. The one common purpose of jihad is to replace every other religion, philosophy and value system with Islam. How a person achieves this depends on the circumstances and resources available.

There is a lot to admire about the American way of immigration. In Britain immigration fails dismally by allowing the migrant to carry on exactly as if they were still in the country of origin where as the US expects a pledge of loyalty in exchange for citizenship.

Could it be that the Tsarnaevs are a mixture of two cultures. Their method is that of the jihadi but the motive the very American desire for their 15 minutes in the spotlight.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

They did NOT emigrate from Chechnya. They did NOT live in Chechnya. The younger one took classes in a UMass facility to learn Chechen history !!!!!! The Russians say they enmigrated to the Us on a TURKISH Visa

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

The younger one wore $900 shoes. Apparently one was born in Kyrgyzstan and the other in Dagestan.

Jackthesmilingblack

If you expect to be shot by Boston Plod, there’s really no point depriving yourself.

AY

(Sorry Tom, meant to answer to Donafugata).
Grozny is Russian for “formidable”. It was Russian army’s fort during colonial war.
…

CortUK

Boston. Home of the IRA in exile isn’t it?

Alan Scott

May we have a c.v. of Mr Maher, please.

AY

great article – no words “islam”, no “muslim”, no “terror” used.

that is like writing about electronics without mentioning voltage.

but it isn’t secret that shiraz maher is a muslim crypto apologist for islamic terror. …

telemachus

islam is a religion of peace, the religion of peace more than any other. these violent men are clearly not muslims and so there is no need to mention islam, muslim or terror. shiraz maher is not a crypto-apologist for islamic terror at all. he is an aplogist for islam but islam is peace not terror.

AY

yeah we all know that “religion of peace” meme. now it is up to muslims to know it too – and at last, stop murdering non-muslims all over the planet.

“Bomb us, and we agonize over the ‘root causes’.
Decapitate us, and our politicians rush to the nearest mosque to declare
that ‘Islam is a religion of peace’. Issue blood-curdling calls at
Friday prayers to kill all the Jews and infidels, and we fret that it
may cause a backlash against Muslims. Behead sodomites and mutilate
female genitalia, and gay groups and feminist groups can’t wait to march
alongside you denouncing Bush and Blair. Murder a schoolful of
children, and our scholars explain that to the ‘vast majority’ of
Muslims ‘jihad’ is a harmless concept meaning ‘healthy-lifestyle lo-fat
granola bar’.”
(Mark Steyn)

this is the type of psyche that you and shiraz maher (if not the same person) try to promote for us infidels. be sure – you will fail miserably.

there is death penalty for apostasy in islam. that doesn’t look like “peace” to me, rather – cult of violence and enslavement.
…

Check the first few books of the bible and see how many times god demands destruction.

tele_machus

The true tele has been cloned

telemachus

i have had to post as ProffessorPlum because my own account is beong copied by someone. But i will go back to this one if it helps. the facts are the same. muslims do not harm people. muhammid loved all men and women, boys and girls.

the viceroy’s gin

…and camels and goats.

AY

this source is hopelessly outdated. it has nothing to do with modern life, – not as guide, not as law, not as practice. it isn’t just here, all evidence is around. none.

on the other hand, islam is here. mass murders in the name of islam happen practically every day.

…

ProffessorPlum

“this source is hopelessly outdated”

What source?you forget to post it

” mass murders in the name of islam happen practically every day.”

examples

AY

you change your posts while discussing. good bye hydra, swim well.

ProffessorPlum

“you change your posts while discussing”

I’m sorry I didn’t realise editting was prohibited.

Bet the real reason for your immaturity is that you haven’t got a link

AY

get lost troll

David Kravitz

Instead of wasting all your time writing to several newspapers, I suggest you try reading one, even the Guardian, for examples.

Yet again you manipulate facts to produce ridiculous statements. Your wikipedia reference shows that Begin and his friends ceased terrorism in 1948. Like Jomo Kenyatta (Mau Mau), Nelson Mandela and Gerry Adams, to name but three, they became respected leaders amongst their own people and outsiders.

ProffessorPlum

” Like Jomo Kenyatta (Mau Mau), Nelson Mandela and Gerry Adams, to name but three, they became respected leaders amongst their own people and outsiders.”

Yes well er der: Jomo Kenyatta (Mau Mau), Nelson Mandela and Gerry Adams, to name but three were fighting to rid idigenous peoples of colonizing forces. Your little hero was comotting terrorists acts as part a colonizing force fighting to remove idigenous people from their homes.

ProffessorPlum

“” mass murders in the name of islam happen practically every day”

Your source starts in 1970. Since 1970 there have been approx. 15700 days, yet the source you provided lists around 120 attacks; do you think you might be guilty of wild exageration?

Your obscure reference is from years ago and is written by a Muslim called A_Nony_Mouse. Very drole.
But what is clear is that your source material for many of your postings and Internet cross-references is Stormfront and Jew-Watch, two highly antisemitic websites and groups. You and telemachus have much in common, not the least of which is how many negative votes you receive.
You are not worth any further comments on this subject.

ProffessorPlum

“But what is clear is that your source material for many of your postings and Internet cross-references is Stormfront and Jew-Watch”

Really. Does that mean that The first airplane hijacking wasn’t committed by Israel in 1954?

Does it mean that the Zionists didn’t blow up Jerusalem’s King David hotel killing around 200 in 1946?

Does it mean that on October 14, 1953, an elite unit under command of ex Prime Minister Ariel Sharon attacked the village of Qibya in Jordan. Where Around 66 houses were blown up killing over a hundred civilians, mainly women and children?

Does it mean that The Jewish ship Patria was blown up in November of 1940 wasn’t blown up by zionists and over 240 jews didn’t die as a result?

Does it mean that Zionist gangs didn’t blow up the Stromanear the shore of Turkey which was carrying 770 illegal Jews, all of which drowned?

Does it mean that none of the acts of zionist terror mentioned in the article didn’t happen?

Answer: No it doesn’t, because they all happened.

Simon Semere

The problem is Islam receives the old testament of the bible (the violent bit) such as ‘an eye for an eye’, but reject the new testament of the bible (the peaceful part) such as ‘turn the other cheek’.

HookesLaw

Well the koran and islam recognises Jesus as a prophet and the life and times and teachings of Jesus, so its a bit (well a lot) simplistic to say they reject the new testament.

The problem with the koran is that islamic fruit loops twist it to suit whatever they want.

ProffessorPlum

“The problem is Islam receives the old testament of the bible (the violent bit) such as ‘an eye for an eye’”

Yes that must be it. If only the jews realised they and moslems had so much in common

David Kravitz

“At least they try to think about it. Israel, America and Britain can’t even do that.”
Doesn’t take long for Plum to introduce Israel into any topic.

telemachus

islam means the way of peace and I am committed to the way of peace, dont say that islam is violent. it is people who are driven by despair who are violent. if we gave them whatthey asked for then they would not be violent. threfore violence is our fault.

I see the tele_machus fraud as appeared again. do not believe his posts. i have many close friends who are muslim and have considered becoming one of them also. it is treuly the way of peace when all submit to it.

James Strong

I wonder if you have revealed more than you intended to, or hoped to.
Why should we give them what they ask for? Especially if they will avoid the use of reason to get it and turn to violence instead.
And why should anyone submit to islam? Especially anyone who has enjoyed the benefits of science and technology which have almost entirely come from the West, as well as art, music and literature which is both more extensive and better than anything from the Islamic world.

HookesLaw

Submit? Strange way to look at it. But then you are deliberately talking cobblers anyway.

Sorry to say the above telemachus is not the true bill
I decry the comments
These 2 clearly were muslim but we are not certain whether that or societal alienation led to the heinous crimes

chan chan

It’s 100% clear their Islamic religion led to these attacks. The evidence is utterly overwhelming. But please, keep your head stuck up your backside – it’s a popular look in the west when it comes to matters Islamic.

It’s dangerous that there are so many ignorant of Islam in the UK.

tele_machus

Cannot accept that
Look at the experience in N India
It was the Hindu’s and Sikh’s that were the most violent at partition

chan chan

Yeah, of course you can’t accept it. The truth is too inconvenient, no? Keep that head stuck in the ground…it’s a strong look.

What on earth do hindus or sikhs have to do with it? We’re talking about Islam – don’t try and change the subject because you’re uncomfortable with reality. I’m not concerned about Hindu or Sikh terrorists, or their religious imperative as laid out in their doctrine to subjugate me at best, kill me at worst.

Pious Muslim Terrorist Psychopath number one, Tamerlane, was named after a muslim warlord who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Hindus – they’re non-muslims, by the way – beheading them to the extent the piles of heads were higher than a man on horseback, according to contemporary records. I’m not remotely surprised the Sikhs and Hindus were violent at partition, bearing in mind their treatment at the hands of Muslims throughout history.

HookesLaw

I think Tamerlane was not too bothered about the religions of who he slaughtered, and rampaged through places like muslim Perisa no doubt killing whatever sect of islam it was politic to slaughter at the time.
For instance he slaughtered between 100000 and 200000 citizens of the Persian city of Ifsahan.

chan chan

Tamerlane was a Sunni Muslim. The Persians were Shiite muslims. Therefore, they’re infidels and can be killed. It’s still the case, funnily enough.

As Condoleeza Rice said “There’s still a tendency to see these things in Sunni-Shia terms. But the Middle East is going to have to overcome that.”

Good luck with that one, Condoleeza! I’m still waiting…

http://owsblog.blogspot.com Span Ows

“It was the Hindu’s and Sikh’s that were the most violent at partition”

I suggest you go back a few centuries and find out why…Islam expansionism has never been peaceful…EVER.

AY

there are millions of “socially alienated” people everywhere. those who practice mass murder of random pedestrians on the streets are hapen to be muslims only. oh and they don’t hide their motives.

Another of the Speccie’s teenagers, holding forth with a politically correct narrative?

So it’s a “complex and confusing picture” for you, is it? What a surprise. We’re all flabbergasted that you’re confused about all this, I’m sure.

But again, let me help un-confuse you. These 2 were islamofascist murderers. They murdered multiple people, as is the islamofascist’s wont. One of the murderers is dead, and one is still alive, but as he’s in custody of the government of the United States, he’s subject to be put to death for his crimes, complex and confusing though those crimes might be for you.

Try to keep it simple, lad. That may help clear up your perpetual confusion.

Shazza

Only one motive – the islamification of the West with a view to establishing a world-wide caliphate implementing sharia law. One giant leap back to the dark ages and we are letting it happen. It is not rocket science. I just question why our cowardly politicians are allowing this to happen.

ProffessorPlum

“Only one motive – the islamification of the West with a view to establishing a world-wide caliphate implementing sharia law”

Which is no doubt why they have taken over our banking system, media and politicians.

David Kravitz

“Which is no doubt why they have taken over our banking system, media and politicians.”
???????

AY

robot is broken, call technician.
…

ProffessorPlum

“???????”

Exactly.

The_Missing_Think

“cowardly politicians” = cowardly voters.

Dot (a) joins to dot (b), dot (b) joins to dot (c)… etc.

May 2010… LibLabCon got 19/20 of votes… geddit yet?

disqus_D5W1PjpR64

Although I have not yet seen it explicitly mentioned anywhere, surely some congratulations are due to the authorities for actually managing to capture this person alive. It would have been much easier to eliminate the risk he posed with a hail of bullets, and few would have criticised that outcome.

The authorities, however, chose a much riskier path: obviously, the needs of intelligence and propaganda played a part in this; but I suspect that good old-fashioned humanity – the desire to give a deeply confused 19 year old the chance to live & seek forgiveness – also played a major part.

Well done FBI / Massachusetts / Boston.

HookesLaw

He was captured barely alive after coming under a hail of gunfire not seen I suspect since the days of Bonnie and Clyde.
Of course if this is heavily disguised irony I profess my apologies.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

I hardly think it was a hail of gunfire

HookesLaw

maybe.
but reports like this say

‘Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured about a mile from the site of the shootout that killed his brother.
A neighbor described how heavily armed police stormed by her window
not long after the lockdown was lifted — the rapid gunfire left her
huddled on the bathroom floor on top of her young son.
“I was just waiting for bullets to just start flying everywhere,” Deanna Finn said.
When at last the gunfire died away and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken
from the neighborhood in an ambulance, an officer gave Finn a cheery
thumbs-up.’

Jackthesmilingblack

Oh yes it was. We get CNN at this end of the ranch, and some six plods kept up a sustained barrage with automatic weapons. Overkill just doesn’t come close.

Colonel Mustard

“to give a deeply confused 19 year old the chance to live & seek forgiveness”

His dead victims didn’t get the chance to live and offer forgiveness. The wounded and even the survivors will be traumatised for the rest of their lives.

Why do lefties always seem to care most about those least deserving?

Nicholas chuzzlewit

Because socialist and idiot are fully interchangeable terms.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

Yes his Repentance will be extraordinary to behold

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

Why don’t you discuss their supposed Kazakh friends ? Or the Russian assertion that they entered the US on a Turkish Visa ? Or that Tamerlan was interviewed by the FBI apparently at the request of the Russian authorities ? Or that Dzhokar had been granted US Citizenship in September ?

Strange goings on really, or do you think they were simply f***** up individuals ?

ProffessorPlum

” Or that Tamerlan was interviewed by the FBI apparently at the request of the Russian authorities ?”

According to his mother the he had been under FBI surveillance for last 5 years

David Kravitz

I never cease to be amazed by the huge number of sources that you quote, most of which are totally obscure. You clearly have no time to do any actual work. (Sorry Spectator for using a 4-letter word).

Pity none of them are impartial and objective, merely as dim as you are.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

You are of course mad, or insular ! Christian Science Monitor is one of the major sources of foreign news and has more column inches devoted to stories than any British newspaper.

http://twitter.com/georgeigler George Igler

What’s always so fascinating about jihadi attacks is the deafening clamour in the press to answer the burning question of “Why?”, which is coupled with the resolute determination by that same press to dismiss and play down exactly the reasons which the perpetrators themselves give for their actions.

Of all forms of terrorism, this is the one where those responsible are the most committed not only to carry out their atrocities, but also to let everyone know precisely the motives behind them; no terrorist is more keen to let you know exactly why it is they do what they do.

Daniel Maris

How very true!

telemachus

Suspect these are not jihadi attecks but just alienated foreigners denied the fruis of the American Dream

i would rather state the truth that islam is a religion of peace and has never harmed any innocent people. mohammod teaches peace not violence. he loved all people. men and women. boys and girls.

Shazza

What are you smoking?

telemachus

The reply to AY is my doppleganger

AY

there were 20000+ terrorist attacks by muslims since 9/11. dosens if not hundreds of thousands have died. and each and every attacker will agree with you – with some modest qualifications.
for you, “peace” means peace in sbmission to islam. “innocents” are or muslims or those who accepted islamic dominance.
you don’t consider the land of peace if that land doesn’t allow mosque construction and bans sharia.
you don’t consider “innocent” the one who refuses to submit to islam.
we were here before, we know who you are.
it will be pleasure to ignore your posts. but don’t expect us to ignore evil you represent.
…

HookesLaw

Most people killed since the iraqi invasion were muslims killed by fellow muslims.

AY

man you resort to prostitution.
everybody knows, – shias don’t recognize sunnis as true muslims, and vice versa. the animosity is to each other, and to infidels.
albeit, if one counts only attacks on infidels, there will be many thousands anyway.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

Never met Mohammed cannot vouch for his behaviour but suspect tradition and history makes your assertions untruthful

What precisely do you mean by, ‘denied the fruits of the American Dream’?
Just how alienated does one have to be before it’s OK to make a bomb and leave it at the feet of innocent people?

tele_machus

There are those inadequates in any society when denied the benefits of that society whether by societal action or inadequacy will kick and if thyey have a screw loose murder as we saw with the high school shootings
I am not justifying it
Far from it
It is one of the reasons we in the UK need the “snooping bill”

Dogsnob

The very construction of your sentences is a tautological nonsense: ‘inadequates…whether by societal action or inadequacy…’?
Do you know yourself, what you are arguing here?

telemachus

violenience is not justified unless it is caused by the effects of others. we need to consider how far we have caised these orinary boys to acj like they did instead of blaming them.

Dogsnob

So you are in fact justifying what these two did to innocent people. They did it because ‘we’ caused them to do it. Was the eight year old boy a part of the offending ‘we’?

Curnonsky

A few things we do know, contrary to predictions by all and sundry in the MSM:

They are not members of the Tea Party.
They are not right-wing tax protesters.
They are not Christian fanatics.
They are not white racists.

Nicholas chuzzlewit

A spokesman from the BBC might respond to these points by saying: la la la la la la la la all la (with his/her fingers in their ears).

Hexhamgeezer

I can see ‘Wide of the’ Mark Mardell now

“They felt alienated by members of the Tea Party.
They were disgusted by right-wing tax protesters.
They felt intimidated by Christian fanatics.
They were under he jackboots of white racists”

telemachus

people dont choose to do these sorts of things. they are driven to them. Ed Miliband has just said we need to look at the causes and motivations of atacs like these. which are really cries for help. I am with Ed. we must not blame islam the relgion of peace. most of the causes will be found to be committed by so called christians. i am with Ed M on this,. lets wait and see what caused this event.

http://twitter.com/georgeigler George Igler

“people dont choose to do these sorts of things. they are driven to them. ”

So people don’t choose to carefully over months, to husband and collect the weaponry. They are driven to it.

They do not choose to buy just the right size of pressure cooker. To carefully and deliberately stick the shrapnel to the inside of it. Just enough nails. Just enough ball bearings. Careful with the wiring. Seventy-six stages taking over three days to turn the household objects deliberately and intentionally into high explosives.

Disguise them in the bags. Be careful not to be spotted. Put it down next to the kid. Make the jihadi video.

They don’t choose to do things. They are driven to it. They come from the most war torn parts of the world and are given every benefit and advantage. Scholarships that thousands upon thousands lose out on.

Until you can begin to accept that the reasons they do these things, planning them carefully over months and months and months, hiding and deceiving everyone they meet, are precisely the reasons they give, then what chance do you think security services will ever realistically have of preventing and detecting them?

Do you not understand now that your ridiculous political ideology is not some game? Buying the bullshit you peddle leads to dead children and maimed limbs.

http://owsblog.blogspot.com Span Ows

You waste good time and effort answering a pitiful troll.

chan chan

When you import hundreds of thousands of people from backward, retarded, third world countries to the west, bringing with them their own system of social, economic, and political governance and their primitive, savage ways, you get trouble…

Jackthesmilingblack

Bad case of being wise after the event.

Noa

We can refuse to be terrorised!

Let us hold an interfaith service in which the clergy of the murderers stand side by side with the clergy of the murdered.

To what extent did Obama’s accommodation of Islam contribute to the bombing?

From FrontPage Magazine of 24 October 2011.

“… the Obama Administration has now officially banned the truth. Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole declared Wednesday at a conference in Washington that he had “recently directed all components of the Department of Justice to re-evaluate their training efforts in a range of areas, from community outreach to national security.” This “reevaluation” will remove all references to Islam in connection with any examination of Islamic jihad terror activity. The Obama Administration has now placed off-limits any investigation of the beliefs, motives and goals of jihad terrorists.”

It must have come as a shock to the great and the good of Boston when terror attacks came to their city.

Perhaps now they can empathise with the people of Northern Ireland who have endured three decades of terror funded by Boston’s (and elsewhere’s) wealthy ‘Irish’ families.

HookesLaw

I seem to recall someone in the Guardian (was it their editor) bemoaning that the 911 bombers chose lefty liberal new York to attack.
Maybe liberal New England will wake up ??

CortUK

Say this on social media and watch countless Americans react with sanctimonious outrage at such disgraceful views. It would be funny if it wasn’t so disgusting.

Daniel Maris

True, but I think we should welcome the Prodigal son…now they know that high explosives and civilians do not make for a nice combination.

http://owsblog.blogspot.com Span Ows

When are the MSM including various at the BBC going to apologise and retract what they were saying earlier in the week and when are they going to stop trying to excuse the murderers now that we know they are Muslim?

HookesLaw

Did the MSM ever state the bombers were not muslim? It seems fair enough to keep an open mind, not least given the activities of people like McVeigh.

The real irritating thing was the endless, hour after hour, wall to wall speculation and repetition where there was nothing to report and ignoring all the valid other news they could have reported on.

Jimmy R

It is not always what you include in a report but what you specifically either leave out or go to great lengths to play down. The BBC certainly played up the “anyone but Muslims” are the ones who will be to blame concentrating almost exclusively on right-wing White Extremists, right-wing Evangelical Christian Extremists, right-wing anti-Government Militias, home-grown right-wing anti-establishment individuals such as the ~Unabomber and others.

There as the odd very quiet whisper that the bombers might just possibly, but highly unlikely, be Muslim extremists or individuals from outside the US whilst a loud megaphone was used to scream nasty, vicious right-wing American nutters would be the ones responsible.

The BBC, and a few other similar sections of the MSM, let their wishful thinking and political bias run wild whilst carefully averting their eyes from any other possibility, but that is something we have learned to expect of them. .

David Kravitz

The BBC will NEVER link the two words “terrorist” and “Muslim”.

HookesLaw

And in the end the terrorists were effectively home grown.
The BBC are a waste of space – thats a given.. But there was nothing unusual in keeping an open mind when absolutely nothing was known – and the interweb was mindlessly fingering anybody and everybody.

itdoesntaddup

Were they? The intelligence is that Tamerlan spent 6 months out of the USA after which his character had changed substantially.

HookesLaw

And so did our home grown 7/7 terrorists.

But in the end the terrorists are what they are – the facts are the facts.

Speculation comes before the facts and the speculation on the interweb was widely wrong whilst at the same time the BBC and indeed SKY were being more cautious.

itdoesntaddup

There’s nothing home grown about preachers of hate such as Qatada or foreign indoctrination camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and wherever it turns out that Tanaev went on his excursions. Such people are no more home grown than a foreign spy.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

There are claims they were CIA assets used to check on Wahhabi influence in Chechnya and that Saudi Arabia has been very active in the region. There is always a move to exfiltrate Saudis after one of these incidents, it happened after 9/11 and it happened in this incident in Boston. I am also curious how someone attempts suicide by shooting himself in the throat so the bullet emerges from the neck as opposed to the gun being placed at the base of the neck to execute

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

Not clear. There is the issue of the visit of the Saudi Foreign Minister to Obama on 17 April and the subsequent reversal of a Deportation Order on a Saudi student with burned hands.

http://owsblog.blogspot.com Span Ows

Jimmy R has answered the first point extremely well…there was no obvious ‘open mind’.

I agree it was intensely irritating unless watched to the sound The Hokey Cokey.

HookesLaw

Nope. There was no idea who it might have been. The thing against it being home grown and right wing was it was not a federal building. On the other hand it was in the heart of the liberal elite.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004981542519 Tom Tom

Copley Square is not “the heart of the liberal elite” any more than Oxford Street